Lou Boudreau - Boudreau Shift

Boudreau Shift

Boudreau is credited with inventing the infield shift, and it came to be known colloquially as the "Boudreau Shift." Boudreau, noticing that Red Sox great Ted Williams was a dead-pull hitter, moved most of his players to right of second base whenever Williams was at bat, leaving only the third baseman and left fielder with any range on the left side of the infield—and they, too, were shifted very close to second base, far away from their normal positions. Williams notably refused the obvious advice from teammates to either start hitting in the opposite direction or at least casually bunt the ball to third base, thus forcing the opposing teams to play him more "honest." Williams stubbornly refused to change his swing or his approach, and yet his hitting ability didn't suffer when teams put the Boudreau Shift on.

Boudreau later admitted that the shift was more about psyching out Williams rather than playing him to pull. "I always considered The Boudreau Shift a psychological, rather than a tactical victory," wrote Lou Boudreau in his book, Player-Manager.